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Advice Needed PLEASE - Derbyshire Building Society

Advice Needed.

Held an account with the Derbyshire for the past ten years, kept a few hundred quid in it just in case of a chance of a windfall? Moved area far North, no branches local, so decided to close it last week. Did a search on the internet branches close by; the closest were either Birmingham or Leicester, so plumped for the biggest in Birmingham. Posted off pass book, along with bank statement, two utility bills as for change of address etc, and letter outlining what I wanted to be done. Posted it by signed on delivery type post, checked today online, no signature, so called up the branch in Birmingham, the connection, lines cut off only to find out the branch is closed down?


Called another branch to find out if mail is being redirected to head office or another branch or might be picked up by someone from another branch? Post office state it may have been delivered to the Birmingham branch without a signature or if not a card should have been left?


So the Derbyshire do not seem to have a process in place to receive mail from this closed branch.

The post office does not know whether the letter was posted without signature or a card left awaiting pickup from the delivery office?


While I sit here wondering where my passbook is, where my two utility bills are and where my bank statement is.

The question I ask, who is to blame, because I am pretty p!ssed off. I sent it by recorded the address was a valid address, I did a search on the net, and the Birmingham address came up as valid.


You would think there would be a postal redirection process in place, put there by the Derbyshire to redirect sensitive and confidential documents sent to the Birmingham branch not knowing its closed etc, by its members surely?
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Comments

  • steady__eddie
    steady__eddie Posts: 1,455 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker Uniform Washer
    The Brum branch did indeed close down some months ago and was still unoccupied a few weeks ago when I passed it. Derbyshire notified me that they were closing it in some info (might have been a voting pack last year).
    I seem to recall that they said my nearest branch was Coventry, this may have been selotaped on the inside of the window of the Brum branch.
    It's been a couple of weeks since I passed the aforementioned branch but IMO it did not require rocket science to see that the premises had been vacated.
    As a matter of interest, which site indicated that there was still a branch in Brum ? It is not now on the D.B.S. site.
  • Do not and have never lived in Birmingham, so would have never seen it is or has been closed for "X" number of days or months. They have never notified me nor would i expect to be notified of a closed branch to be perfectly honest. But when i did a search a few weeks ago in google stating
    "Derbyshire Building Society branches in Birmingham" the address came up and i used it, not knowing it was closed down? I mean what are the chances of the organisation closing a branch in Birmingham , i mean the size of the place yet not closing a branch in say Coventry?

    But that is not my main case of complaint, any bank of building society which is in the business of recieving money or confidential information; using just common sense would put in place at ground level by which i i mean the postal service a facility to divert all post from not going to the Birmingham branch but redirecting it to another branch or the head office? Just for security reason for at least the period of say 12 months from closing the branch, not rocket science?


    Cheers.

    http://www.iwestmidlands.co.uk/profile/47390/Birmingham/Derbyshire-Building-Society/


    Derbyshire Building Society
    33 Colmore Row
    Birmingham
    West Midlands B3 2BS

    Telephone: 0121 2361975

    Fax: 0121 2364332
  • Mikeyorks
    Mikeyorks Posts: 10,377 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    using just common sense would put in place at ground level by which i i mean the postal service a facility to divert all post from not going to the Birmingham branch but redirecting it to another branch or the head office?

    I don't know of any Banks or BS's that close Branches and don't put an intercept in place. Royal Mail spend a lot of their time re-routing mail as a consequence of changes in Branch networks.

    Either ring Derbyshire HO or the local Royal Mail sorting office closest to the Birmingham address. Either should know if there's an intercept and the routing destination.
    If you want to test the depth of the water .........don't use both feet !
  • Mikeyorks wrote: »
    I don't know of any Banks or BS's that close Branches and don't put an intercept in place. Royal Mail spend a lot of their time re-routing mail as a consequence of changes in Branch networks.

    Either ring Derbyshire HO or the local Royal Mail sorting office closest to the Birmingham address. Either should know if there's an intercept and the routing destination.

    Called Royal Mail today, they stated no mail divert is in place from this address:

    Derbyshire Building Society
    33 Colmore Row
    Birmingham
    West Midlands B3 2BS

    To another address.

    Called two branches today and HQ, not one person could tell me for sure, they were telling me conflicting stories.

    HQ did not know, looking into it.

    Coventry said yes to Burton on Trent.

    Burton on Trent said yes to Coventry.

    Questioned both what Royal Mail said, both went silent, and i was told they would seek further advice from HQ.

    Coventry said the post box on the Birmingham branch was boarded up, so no post could be accepted anyway.


    Its a CIRCUS i tell you, and they handle your savings?


    I cannot believe the incompetence if it is or proves to be incompetetence, that i posted all my documents by recorded delivery and my passbook by recorded delivery to the address above, and no one knows where they are, or how they should be getting to where they should be?


    Its no wonder the banking industry is in the mess it is in?:rotfl:
  • Chadsman
    Chadsman Posts: 1,111 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I would write to their Head Office setting out the facts requesting that they close the account.
    God save the King!
    I'll save Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, J. M. W. Turner and Alan Turing.
  • Chadsman wrote: »
    I would write to their Head Office setting out the facts requesting that they close the account.

    That is now my one regret, i went for Birmingham, just because Birmingham is a big city, the city of the big building societies, i closed a couple of old accounts all post went to Birmingham branches. What a mistake now?

    All i wanted to do was close the account, i can see an FSA complaint or ombusman complanit coming up, why should you have to commit so much of your time just to chase up a simple request? Six hours of phone calls, incompetence if that is the word?
  • nicko33
    nicko33 Posts: 1,125 Forumite
    I cannot believe the incompetence if it is or proves to be incompetetence, that i posted all my documents by recorded delivery and my passbook by recorded delivery to the address above, and no one knows where they are, or how they should be getting to where they should be?
    Don't forget that you need to learn a lesson here also.

    If you want to find a branch address, use the website of the organisation itself, not just any old website that may have out of date information on it.

    If there was no redirect in place, and the mail could not be delivered, then the mail should end up being returned to sender.
    Eventually...

    I don't see that DBS has anything to answer for here.
    Just the Royal Mail.
  • nicko33 wrote: »
    If there was no redirect in place


    Mate, sums up the systems we use in our society, the monkeys we pay peanuts to run our institutions?

    Say no more, [EMAIL="f@ck"]f@ck[/EMAIL] me, switch the lights out, the default option says "No"?

    The "no go" guage says "it won't go" the fool proofing figures fools do not exist?

    Give up!:T
  • 456789
    456789 Posts: 2,305 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    But when i did a search a few weeks ago in google stating
    "Derbyshire Building Society branches in Birmingham" the address came up and i used it, not knowing it was closed down?
    http://www.iwestmidlands.co.uk/profile/47390/Birmingham/Derbyshire-Building-Society/


    Derbyshire Building Society
    33 Colmore Row
    Birmingham
    West Midlands B3 2BS

    Telephone: 0121 2361975

    Fax: 0121 2364332
    Whilst I agree that they should have had some measures in place to redirect mail - the website you have used is not their official website it is just a directory of services which you can not verify to be accurate/updated properly and therefore it is not the derbyshire's fault that you sent your book to that address

    in future you should use the official website such as: http://www.thederbyshire.co.uk/our_branches/find_a_branch.aspx
  • Sorry if I sound unsympathetic, but I found The Derbyshire website in less than a minute; found a list of branches on that site within another 30 seconds (which would have shown Birmingham branch no longer exists), and found a contact telephone number for advice on what to do to close my account within another 15 seconds.

    It wasn't exactly rocket science.
    "The trouble with quotations on the Internet is that you never know whether they are genuine" - Charles Dickens
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